Carrying a firearm also boosts one’s confidence, often falsely. Your weapon feels like protection so you walk taller. Unarmed, you know you’re a possible target. I was on my brigade’s .45 ACP team in the Army; I’m a trained pistolero. I’ve lived in BAD locales. I’ve never wanted to carry. I’d rather be wary.
That doesn’t address gender discrimination. Maybe include self-protection training in school P.E. classes. But would boys learn to overcome girls’ defenses?
I’d rather not lose the next 20 years of my life, all my social standing, and every speck of my freedom over a rapist. Rape sucks, but I fail to see why the majority of victims wouldn’t just accept that they’re gonna get raped today and that’s that. After all… that’s what usually happens anyway. Besides, I’m pretty sure in our society that women shooting men they said were going to rape them would just result in a high amount of incarcerated women and laws making it illegal for women to own guns.
Better yet, let’s teach children to not go around assaulting each other.
Patriarchy is part of a culture of impunity: where power means the power to get away with stuff, and where the more power you have, the more you get away with, and where the people who have more than the rest of us combined can get away with anything.
I also see that regularly expressed in what I call the “glass floor” effect, where chronic bunglers and pathological liars aren’t allowed to fail by the societal institutions that have invested so much in their success and are instead given extra chance after chance to redeem themselves. Many of us have encountered these types in the workplace (if you’ve ever asked “how does that guy still have a job here after all this time and so many screw-ups”, you know the type).
Most of the beneficiaries of that effect are white cisgender males from privileged backgrounds (e.g. Stephen Glass, Jonah Lehrer, convicted rapist Brock Turner, “Affluenza Kid” Ethan Couch, etc.), because American society values them most among all its members.
Statistically that isn’t how things work out. Most rapists are known to their victims. The scenario that poses the most risk isn’t some stranger you will feel no compulsion about shooting, but a friend, an intimate partner, or possibly family. Even if you bring yourself to not be bothered by that (hey they’re a rapist), a lot of rapes occur in situations where you are in some way impaired. Maybe you’re drunk, tired, or have aged into dementia. Those aren’t moments where you want to be wielding a loaded gun in preparation for a rape.
Let the NRA’s fantasies go. Life doesn’t work that way if you weren’t born with a penis.
Your first clue that it’s a false equivalency should be that you are “swapping” a gender and an occupation.
Eskimos seem to do that pretty well. Alas, out USA was built on genocide, conquest, slavery, rage, and generally whomping all available targets. The revolution mostly benefited propertied white guys. That’s a long tradition.
America hates children, especially girls. If kids were valued, teachers would be paid more. If girls were valued, all kids would be taught to behave. America hasn’t the will.
I’ve had more than one gun pointed at me by more than one man (Texas ya’ll). I don’t carry so never had it pried from my person but in all cases the gun supposedly for “protecting” me was eventually pointed at my head or chest. Personally I feel safer with no gun.
Despite being buried and despite I can’t remember who said it, I wanted to add a parallel theory to this: the six million dollar man theory:
When it’s anybody else, the rule of law MUST BE OBEYED. If we don’t punish, how will they learn?
But when it’s a rich white male, WE CAN REBUILD HIM, it would be unfair to do otherwise.
Silly, men wanting to rape women is just nature… I know, cause some men told me so! /s
Gee, just what we “need”; yet another defeatist banshee.
Possibly. She decided that that was her preference.
She felt that way as well. Meanwhile, there is a real world we live in. OF COURSE right minded people want that sort of world. It doesn’t come into being overnight. Meanwhile, she decided she would never be helpless again. I completely don’t understand why other women wouldn’t respect that.
Except that it’s factually true in this case - having a gun simply makes it more likely you’ll be the victim of gun violence because it’ll be used against you. Women are most likely to be assaulted by someone they know. Having a gun in the house makes it five times more likely a woman will be killed in a domestic violence incident, etc.
I mean, it’s almost like the deck is stacked against women in literally every aspect of modern life, but that can’t possibly be true, can it? /s
I must really suck. Obviously I’m not competent to defend myself. I’d better call the cops for help and hope they don’t send any female officers who will have their guns taken away by the bad guys.
I think the point is that women are fucked, no matter what? Having a gun won’t stop you from being raped, and if you use it, you’re more likely to end up in a jail cell if you’re a woman?
But hey, what does she know about how she feels being a woman in the modern world?
No guarantees in life, she was just doing what she could to sleep. Apparently there’s only one way to survive attempted rape and it ain’t hers. Better that she not be able to function than risk defending herself.
Done on this topic as apparently her agency isn’t worthy of respect and I can’t speak any more without violating her privacy and continuing to speak for someone else. The most specific thing I’ll say is guns don’t even have anything to do with her circumstances so that doesn’t matter. It’s not the only weapon for self defense. I didn’t say so because again, didn’t want to get into recognizeable details.
Saying things are impossible is a tactic the power structure uses to prevent progress.
It’s usually used by those who benefit from the existing power structure but want to make it appear they oppose an instance of that structure while maintaining their position within it.
Most women where I live have guns. A huge amount get raped… more than once. If a gun makes you feel anything is safer or better you are lying to yourselves. Have a gun if you like it just understand it is your life that ends no matter what happens. These asshats trying to detail are trifling. Guns are already helping as much as they are ever going to and that isn’t very much at all. It’s a non-solution.
